Elder Scrolls Online Murkmire DLC Review

Positives

- New swampy location to explore, environment has a Witcher 3 feel to it
- Lots of side quests for a small expansion
- Argonian voice acting is done well.

Negatives

- Main story was shorter than we had hoped
- New enemies not very challenging or creative. Bear Lizard?

Posted
November 3, 2018 by David Latham

Latest Tweets

Full Article

Elder Scrolls Online is becoming no stranger to adding lore and land to the world of Tamriel, and this time players are heading to the Argonian homeland of Black Marsh. The Elder Scrolls OnlineMurkmire DLC gives players a fresh new look into where the Argonians came from, and the chance to learn a history that has been kept at bay for many years. If you’re an Elder Scrolls fan, Murkmire gives you a huge amount of new lore to explore, and if you’re an Elder Scrolls Online player, the new DLC has plenty of items to unlock as well, so let’s dissect the ESO lizard DLC.

Stepping out into the land of Murkmire, you soon create new NPC friends that will guide you through the main story. There are three main characters in Murkmire, Famia, a human that has come to explore the region as well, Xucas, an Argonian that wants nothing but peace for his kind, and Kassandra, who, well let’s just call her an antagonist. The main story quest takes a few hours to work through and is fully voice acted, in fact all quests in Murkmire are voice acted, just like the rest of the game, which is always a nice touch. While completing the main quest you’ll come across many others scattered across the map, but none of them are terribly long. It would be nice if these DLC packs (and expansions) occasionally sent you to another part of Tamriel to deliver a message or something, we think some of the best quests from World of Warcraft were ones that did this.

The new map of Murkmire is found in the south eastern corner of Tamriel, an area which isn’t often referred to throughout Elder Scrolls lore, however on maps of Tamriel you will notice a town in the bottom corner called Lilmoth, and players will find this to be the starting location of the Murkmire DLC. The Murkmire map itself is quite small (about a third the size of Summerset) and barely scratches the surface of the full Black Marsh region. While Elder Scrolls VI is looking like it will be heading to High Rock and/or Hammerfell (and still at least 3-4 years away), there is definitely room for Elder Scrolls Online to grow in Black Marsh.

The Murkmire map works in one big loop with plenty of things to see as you work your way through the swampy marsh lands. There’s a house in the north which players will soon be able to purchase, two world bosses, two delves, an arena, and several other places to explore where you will find optional side quests. If you’re a high champion level then chances are you won’t find anything useful from the quests, but there are epic sets to collect such as the Champion of the Hist, Dead Water’s Guile and the Bright-Throat’s Boast. We found these sets to be a little better than existing sets as long as you match them appropriately.

There are three daily quests which might keep you coming back to Murkmire, two of which are in Lilmoth with the other in the north eastern encampment of Root-Whisper Village. Completing them will give you a set piece of varying rarity, and usually involve downing a world boss or clearing a delve. You’ll also find Skyshards scattered around the map, and of course the Champion level has risen from 750 to 810. There’s not much else to do in Murkmire once you’ve finished the quests and gathered your set pieces, so it’s probably a good idea to play this one sooner rather than later. Fortunately, for the launch month if you log in for 24+ days and collect the daily reward then Zenimax will gift you the full Murkmire DLC pack!

There are new enemies scattered around Murkmire, some of which will knock you off your feet and others which won’t even move. Everything from plants to lizard bears will attack you in this DLC, and yes, there are a lot of crocodiles which accommodate the Argonain homeland. While you will come across new enemies, any experienced ESO player is not going to find anything too challenging here. We completed the whole DLC, including world bosses, without dying, although we did see others succumbing to the deadly unavoidable (totally avoidable) red circles.

If there’s one thing Zenimax has been perfecting lately it’s the environments. Summerset was gorgeous with its massive vistas and huge castle-like structures, and now Murkmire brings yet another biome to the game. The main Argonians you come across are highly decorated and look exactly how you’d expect them to, and everything in Murkmire works well together to create the authentic Black Marsh Argonian experience that Zenimax was going for. Combined with the strange Argonian voice acting and tongue-in-cheek jokes throughout, Elder Scrolls Online Murkmire is a joy to play for the time that it lasts.

While the new DLC is a great addition to the Elder Scrolls Online package, we feel the new Murkmire zone could have been a bit larger. It’s about the same size as Clockwork City but doesn’t have the same epic feel to it that the city had. While the main story takes your character to different realms, we never really felt overwhelmed or lost. Zenimax has a lot planned for ESO over the next few years though, so hopefully we’ll see more of Black Marsh and larger new zones to explore soon.

The Elder Scrolls Online Murkmire DLC launched on October 22 on Windows PC and will launch on November 6 on Xbox One and PlayStation 4. As mentioned, you can get Murkmire for free by logging in for 24+ days throughout November 2018 and claiming your daily reward. The DLC is of course also available for ESO+ subscribers, otherwise it costs 2,000 crowns in the Crown Store. For more information, head to the official Murkmire website here.

David Latham

David has a Bachelor of Arts (Journalism) from a Group of Eight university, but only uses his very unique set of skills writing about video games. By day he's a stay-at-home dad, by night he's literally Batman. Where does he find the time?